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Thirst

Synopsis

Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho), a respected priest, volunteers for an experimental procedure that may lead to a cure for a deadly virus. He gets infected and dies, but a blood transfusion of unknown origin brings him back to life as a vampire. Now, Sang-hyun is torn between faith and bloodlust, and has a newfound desire for Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin), the wife of his childhood friend.

Park Chan Wook's Thirst is definitely a very unique film. Like other Vampire films, it deals with love, yes, but it is never only that. Chan Wook places the protagonist in such an exasperating dilemma which pulled me effortlessly into the film.

The film portrays a variety of themes, ranging from sacrifice, remaining faithful to God and servility, repentance, haunting of past sins, lust, murder, corruption of a pure soul and eventually redemption. Chan Wook as always brings out the basest of human desires; no matter how ugly they might be, in the most exciting, unrestrained manner possible with oodles and oodles of blood. There is so much sampling, tasting, licking, gulping of blood going on in…

Many vampire movies blend sexuality and violence but Thirst is without a doubt the sexiest vampire film I've ever seen. The wonderful Song Kang-Ho plays a vampire priest who finds himself drawn towards sinful pleasures which his order forbids. When he reunites with an old acquaintance (Kim Ok-Bin) he finds his desire too much to resist, but when she shows an interest in his vampirism he realizes that her desire may truly be beyond his control.

Thirst plays with some pretty traditional story elements as far as vampire movies are concerned—the need for blood vs the desire not to kill, an outsider wants to join but doesn't understand the consequences, etc.—but adds to them some of Park Chan-Wook's personal cinematic…

Inspired by Steve Grzesiak to defend Park Chan-wook's Thirst I felt the need to re-watch the film; but after this viewing, although my opinions haven't changed - I don't feel the need to defend it.

As Iron Maiden say (or sing, or chant) "Everybody has a different way to view the world" and I'm glad this is the case - as anyone who loves film will know - what is the point of having an opinion if we all have the same one? And now I think to myself, why am I even stating this when it is all too obvious?

Well first thing is first, it is rare to be able to persuade someone's opinion and nor do I…

My first Chan-Wook Park film Thirst was a perplexing experience. I wouldn't say I enjoyed the film, it was about twenty minutes two long and I found myself very emotionally detached from the proceedings, but the craft was there. Beautiful cinematography, and a deliberate dedication to seductive and violent imagery. This is a tale of vampires, of sorts, pursuing the pleasures of the flesh; whether that means drinking blood or having sex. And that's mostly was Thirst is. Extended and explicit, this relationship is built on sex and developed through it too. After sex, consumption of blood is the star. Lots of close-ups of these two protagonists drinking out of their victim's necks, wrists and IV's; very unsettling and beautifully…

7/10 I've basically set myself up for failure when starting Thirst. While I still really like this film I think I overhyped it in my mind after seeing the amazingness of Oldboy and The Handmaiden. It's still pretty good but not quite on the same level as those 2 films. One thing that sort of annoyed me is a certain trope vampire films have during the 2nd act. It's when the main character(s) meets a human and they turn them into a vampire and they have the whole exploration stage of turning into a vampire. I don't mind it all that much but it can get tiring seeing that over and over again. (I.E. What We Do In The Shadows.)…

Too many vampire stories involve either a priest or a figure of religious authority having to face down a monstrous threat from Hell OR a love story between a beautiful woman and a vampire way too handsome to be on a strictly blood diet. Park Chan-wook is a man that refuses to ignore any aspect of the myth as he fuses both ends of the spectrum together in a way only Chan-wook could, and it’s glorious. And when I say glorious, “pleasant” is not an implication.

Instead of a priest coming out of nowhere to face down the threat we get Song Kang-ho playing both priest and demon occupying the same body, while at the same time falling into a…

What a weird movie. You have like... three or four genres in this. You have some kind of romance, a drama; then it goes crazy bananas and shift to some psychological shit to then have some form of horror. It's pretty fucked up. And it has some crazy fetishes in this... But other than that, it's pretty good. The characters are nice and the performances from the two lead are pretty good. I think the development of the characters is the best thing about this movie; they really evolve and change a lot throughout the film. I also liked the way vampirism is portrayed. Say whatever you want about vampire movies, there's always a new way to show vampirism. Overall, a pretty good movie that is sometimes quite strange and difficult to follow. However, the performances and the characters make up for that.